the Apostles time been reputed necessary to be Believed to Salvation then certainly they ought not to be denied to be absolutely subservient to that End without the Proof of one or all of these things First That the Authors were not Divinely Inspired But this is already granted us by our Author that they were Holy Writers inspired from above p. 297. who writ nothing but Truth But what sort of Truth he here means shall hereafter be enquired into Or Secondly That the Apostles had no Authority or Commission to deliver any thing for a necessary Article of Faith But there can be no pretence for such an Assertion since it is granted by our Author that their Doctrine as delivered in the Acts does require our actual Belief Since then what they taught in their Preaching was of so great Authority why should not their Writings be of the same Consequence especially since they are allowed by our Author to be of Divine Inspiration If then the want of sufficient Commission does not seem to be an Argument against the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles it must be made appear in the Third Place before they should be rejected that none of the Doctrines were writ with any design that all Christians should be necessarily required to believe them to Salvation But how can this be proved Are there any such hints in the Epistles themselves or have we any foot-steps of a Tradition that informs us that the Apostles left them to be received with such an Indifference For if neither of these can be shewn or if the contrary is evident Namely that the Apostles did not submit their Doctrines to Mens choice whether they would Believe them or not without hazarding their Salvation and if it appear from the design of the Epistles and from many places of them which I shall hereafter mention that they did enjoin the explicite Belief of several of their Doctrines without which Men could not be saved then we have still the more reason to be confirmed in acknowledging them for Fundamentals of our Faith Fourthly Then there must be some Contradiction in the Epistles to the other parts of Scripture that can prevent their Doctrines from being as necessary to be Believed as any other the most important parts of Revelation But as this can never be made appear so it is not possible to suppose that the Epistles should contain Contradictions if we allow what our Author has granted p. 297. that they were Divinely inspired Then Fifthly and Lastly The only Plea remaining why the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles are not to be received with the same degrees of Assent with those in the Gospels and Acts or that particular Article so much insisted upon in the Reasonableness of Christianity must be because they are none of them of equal necessity to be known to make a Man a Christian But how does this appear Are there no great and fundamental Truths inserted in the Epistles as well as in the Gospels Vindic. p. 16. But it is urged That they are promiscuously set down and have no such Mark of Distinction as his Article is found to have in the Gospels and Acts. But this Objection seems too precarious For I question not but I shall make it appear that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are as much distinguished by the great importance which they are declared to be of and by the necessity that is laid upon all Christians of actually Believing them by the Inspired Writers as any other universally acknowledg'd Article of our Faith Indeed they are mixt with other things which are not of such immediate concern to us but so are the Doctrines contain'd in the Gospels And therefore if this is a Prejudice to one it must be so equally to the other Indeed this seems objected That though the Apostles were Divinely Inspired in their Epistolary Writings and although they had a Divine Commission to teach what was necessary to Salvation yet their Commission did not extend to the making any other Article necessary to Salvation than what our Saviour had already declared to be sufficient for it And this is manifest from the whole Tenour of the Epistles where there are no Doctrines proposed to be Believed upon the absolute Promise of Salvation and nothing declar'd to be so much a Fundamental distinct from what is deliver'd in the Gospels or Acts as that we cannot be saved without an explicite Belief of it Since therefore the Apostles have not laid such stress upon any Doctrines in their Epistles we ought not to do it And therefore of what use soever the Epistles may be to us otherwise for the resolving Doubts and reforming Mistakes which are of great Advantage to our Knowledge and Practice p. 295.297 as also for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it yet there can be no distinct Truths contain'd in them of so great Consequence in order to Salvation as there are in the Gospels and Acts were all that is necessary to be Believed to make a Man a Christian is declared to be sufficient to that End and Eternal Life proposed upon such a Faith and Eternal Damnation denounced upon a Disbelief which are not annex'd to any of the Doctrines in the Epistles And therefore we must be very unwary Christians to lay a greater force upon any Doctrines than the Apostles have done or make any Terms of Salvation or Church-Communion absolutely necessary which were never by the Apostles so declared For an Answer to this it will be material to Examine first whether nothing is absolutely necessary to be Believed to Salvation but what is declared to be so or whether any Doctrine upon which Salvation is proposed is singly of it self sufficient for it And this seems to be a Query of no small importance For if this is made the only Rule whereby to judge of Fundamentals viz. A Doctrine's being expresly declared to be necessary to be actually Believed to Salvation we should I fear by this means raise several Exceptions against a great part of Religion For if this must universally hold in matters of Faith it must also in those of Practice most of which would unavoidably lose their Force and Obligation if the Observance of no other Duties was required of us but such alone as the Scripture had declared to be absolutely necessary to Salvation In like manner if in matters of Faith nothing is to be required for a Fundamental but what is so proposed and to which Salvation is expresly annexed and promised it would very probably make way for a very unintelligible Faith in which Christians could not possibly agree For if nothing more is to be Believed as necessary to Salvation than what is so proposed then it will follow that no more than the bare Proposition which is declared to be of that great Importance is to be assented to As suppose in that Proposition which I shall
in its proper place These Places of Scripture now mention'd are sufficient to shew that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are required to be explicitely believed And the Apostles did certainly design this End in writing their Epistles as in the 2 Cor. 1.13 For we write none other things unto you than what you read or acknowledge and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end And in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. 2. Ver. 15. Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle All which Places with innumerable others which might be cited to the same Purpose undeniably prove that the Apostles enjoin'd the Belief of what they writ in their Epistles as necessary to Salvation And it would be absurd to imagine that the Apostles should fill their Writings with any of the Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose a Necessity upon Men of believing them And here it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether design'd to teach them any Doctrines to instruct them in what was necessary to make them Believers but it is sufficient that they could not continue true Christians or Believers without acknowledging the Doctrines there deliver'd for fundamental Articles of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians But however the word Christians is often used ambiguously and is promiscuously given to all who are Baptized into the Christian Faith And therefore tho' most of the Epistles might be written to those who were called Christians yet they might not be throughly so i. e. They might not have a perfect knowledge of all the Articles of Faith As is particularly plain in the Thessalonians by St. Paul's first Epistle to them Chap. 3. Ver. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your Faith So that our Author's Argument from the Epistles being written to those who were already Christians is also upon this account very insufficient to weaken their Authority But he farther urges That the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions p. 295. and without those Occasions had not been writ and so cannot be thought necessary to Salvation But how can it be proved that all the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions For the contrary seems plain in several of the Epistles For though they were directed to particular Churches yet were they design'd for whole Provinces as the Epistles to the Corinthians were intended for the Province of Achaia That to the Galatians for a whole Country and those directed to the Thessalonians and Philippians were design'd for the two Provinces of Macedonia It being usual with the Apostle to give such Preheminence to the Metropolis of any Province as to direct to that what he intended for the whole Which is sufficient to shew that those Epistles were not writ upon any particular Occasion to those Churches they were sent to since they obliged a great Number equally with them Nor can we suppose them to be design'd for those particular Provinces only tho' they should be known to others for if they only were obliged by them then no one could be required to observe them any longer than he continued in such a Province For if they affected none out of the Province then those who went from that to another must also be freed from all Obligations to them which is too absurd to imagine The like Observations may be made upon other Epistles The first Epistle of St. Peter is directed to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia His second Epistle is likewise General and so are the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude But there is nothing that can be more General than the first Epistle of St. John which tho' occasion'd by some new raised Heresies yet is directed to all Christians to give them true Notions of the Divinity and eternal Existence of the Son of God which are proved at large in that Epistle in Opposition to all Heresies that then were or that possibly might arise concerning them For all which reasons it is evident that a great many of the Epistles were design'd for all Christians in general Those indeed to the Romans and the Hebrews seem to have some things in them which particularly relate to those Churches But yet there are a great many Truths in them of general use and importance which seem to be design'd on purpose for all Christians in general But to look a little back upon the Epistle to the Hebrews which if well considered cannot be denied to contain some Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians if this may be granted that the same Faith was required after Conversion both from Jew and Gentile For the design of that Epistle was not only to convince the Jews that the Reason of the Ceremonial Law was ceased and consequently that they ought to discontinue their observance of it and that the Aaronical Priesthood was abolished by our Saviour's Entering upon his Priestly Office but also to obviate which the Author has done with very great care two Conceptions which Men might be tempted to have of our Saviour The one was to think him some Angelical Being the other some great Prophet like Moses or superior to him Now the Author of that Epistle does plainly deny our Saviour to be of that sort and order of Beings that either Angels or Moses was in the first second and third Chapters c. He does not only set him above them all in a Style that imports Superiority and Pre-eminence but does it in a set of Phrases that shew him to be of another Nature than they And to evince the Truth of this a great part of this Epistle was design'd For there was a Sect amongst the Jewish Converts to Christianity that were not only for continuing the Observation of the Mosaick Institutions but who also opposed the Divinity of our Saviour and against these the Apostle seems professedly to argue in this Epistle Which if looked upon to be writ with this Design is as full a Proof for the Divinity of our Saviour and the necessity of believing it to Salvation or without which Church-Communion cannot be maintain'd as need be desired for any thing of that Nature But besides this Epistle to the Hebrews there is no question but the very first Christians thought almost all the Doctrines in every Epistle of general Concern by their constant reading them every Lord's Day in all their publick Assemblies which was done not only amongst those to whom they were written but also amongst all those who had Copies of them And that an Epistle which was writ to one Church should also be read amongst others which would never have been commanded if they were writ upon particular Occasions to any Church is enjoin'd expresly by St. Paul himself in his Epistle
he was the Messiah as our Author instances in St. Peter's Sermon to Cornelius that whosoever believeth on him should receive remission of Sins Act. 10.43 But will our Author assert that this implies no more than the bare believing him to be the Messiah without knowing what is meant by the Word Does it not also in the same place intimate that he by Vertue of his Dignity and Office had Power to forgive Sins which none can do but God alone And thus in the 36 ver that this Messiah was Lord of all i.e. Was over all God blessed for ever All which as they are implied in the Sermon of St. Peter so they there seem necessarily required to be believed in order to Baptism and consequently to Salvation And we cannot besides imagine that the Apostle would so far impose upon Men as to oblige them to believe what they knew nothing of or to build their Faith upon Words without Meaning Which we must suppose them to do if they made the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah to be all that was necessary without explaining what they meant by Messiah how he was our Messiah or what he must be either God Man or both that he might be capacitated to be the Messiah And therefore we are to understand by believing Jesus to be the Messiah in this and almost all other places the full Extent and Meaning of those Words as they are explain'd by this and other Apostles in all parts of Scripture Which were all of them Inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning unless the Holy Spirit dictated different or contradictory kinds of Doctrine which would be too impious to assert And therefore the believing Jesus to be the Messiah as it is now requir'd for a Fundamental of our Faith must comprehend the full Sence that is given of it in Scripture unless we can prove that there was not the same Inspiration and consequently not the same Reason for our Faith Nor does the believing Jesus to be the Messiah appear to be all that is necessary to make a Man a Christian from that place of the Acts where the Eunuch is mentioned to have been Baptized upon that Confession of his Faith to Philip I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Act. 8.37 For though here is no more set down yet no doubt there is more implied For we have none of the Doctrines recorded that Philip Preacht to him but that he instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isaiah which is a Prophesy of the Sacrifice of Christ and that he was to Die for our Sins which Doctrines as they must be part of what Philip taught so no doubt they were requir'd as absolutely necessary to be believed and besides since Philip Baptized him no question but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoin'd In the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required For where the Form of Baptism is not mention'd we ought to understand it to be the same which was Instituted and Commanded by Christ himself and which was observ'd by the Primitive Church But Secondly I shall shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah As first It is plainly laid down in those Holy Writings that he was God nay his Divinity is so plainly asserted by St. John in the first Chapter of his Gospel that it seems almost impossible for Words to express it more clearly In the beginning was the word and the word was God c. Now it is most certain as has been already observed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in Jewish and Heathen Writers was meant a Divine Person and was much used by the Platonists that liv'd in this Apostle's Time and that the most Learned a mongst the Jews did appropriate that Title to their expected Messiah as well as they believed he should be God So that this may be a very good Reason for our Saviour and his Apostles requiring no more to be believed in their Preachings amongst the Jews than that Jesus was the Messiah since if they once firmly believed that they must necessarily believe him also to be God And this is also evident from the Jews never objecting Idolatry at the first to the Christans upon supposition that he was the Messiah whom they Worshiped which certainly they would have done had they not expected their Messiah should be God Which is an Argument manag'd with such Strength and Judgment in a late Discourse by a Learned Prelate of our Church that it may seem of it self sufficient to silence all Opposition except that of Malice that can be made against it or against the Divinity of Christ Indeed Trypho the Jew in his Dispute with * Justin Martvr Dialog cum Tryphon Judaeo p. 2668. Ed. Paris Justin Martyr asserts that the Jews did not expect their Messiah to be God but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he expresseth it but that he does not here speak the true sence of the Jews who lived before him is evident from what †Dem. Evang. l. 4. c. 1. Eusebius declares that the Jews had the same Opinion with the Christians concerning Christ's Divinity till they changed it in direct Opposition to the Christians Which gives us a very good account of the Reason why Trypho and the rest of the Jews fell from their Notion concerning the Divinity of their expected Messiah the Christians having gain'd great Advantages over them from the Opinions of the ancient Rabbins about it And therefore we may best judge of the Opinions of the Jews concerning the Divinity of the Messiah from those who lived before our Saviour since the latter Jews have differed very much from them And this is plain from their different Interpretation of the second Psalm For †R. David sunt qui interpretantur Psalmum istum de Gog Magog estque Messiah Rex Messias atque ita exposuerunt Doctores nostri Estque Psalmus hoc modo explicatus perspicuus at vero proprius est dixisse ipsum Davidem de seipso uti a vobis expositum Not. Miscel in Maimon C. 8. p. 314. One of them ingeniously confesses That all their Doctors had expounded it it of the Messiah which he allows to be a clear Explication of it but however that it would be more to the Purpose for them now to understand it as spoken by David of himself And * Doctores nostri exposuerunt hujus Psalmi significatum de Rege Messiah at prout sonat ut respondeatur Menaeis seu Hereticis expedit intepretari ipsum de ipso Davide R. Salamo Jarchi p. 315. another of them also acknowledges That this Psalm was constantly interpreted by their Doctors to signify
fully satisfied was an Error Whether I have said enough to convince him he has been in a mistake I cannot promise For I may fancy that a demonstration to me which may be no proof to others I have endeavoured to represent his sense with the utmost justice and sincerity and if I have any where mistaken it I can only say it was both against my Intention and Knowledge And now I have only thus much to assure my Adversary of that I have not made any Observations upon his Book out of bigottry to a Party or prejudice to any set of opinions For I have no other Interest to serve than that of Truth nor have I any Byass to incline me besides my own Impartial Enquiries And if they have misguided me I shall be very ready to submit to better Information THE CONTENTS I. A Vindication of the Epistles Page 1. II. Of the Reason of Christ's coming into the World pag. 53 III. What we are to believe concerning Christ pag. 64. A VINDICATION Of The Epistles c. WHatsoever Design the Author of The Reasonableness of Christianity might propose in Publishing that Treatise whether it was for the Benefit of those who were not throughly and firmly Christians or to be a General Rule of Faith to all sorts of Men it does not seem to give such satisfaction to an Inquisitive Mind as might prevent all Exceptions against it in relation to either of those Ends. Not only because it introduces a new Scheme of Belief in opposition to the anciently received Doctrine of the Church but because it does not answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation which is the only Reason and Measure of our Faith I shall not make it my Business to compare it with the Socinian or any other Hypothesis or enquire to what Sect or Party the Author seems most inclined but shall only so far consider his Opinions as they seem to me to be inconsistent with Truth For I cannot think my self obliged to fix any Man to a Party which He will not own himself to be of though some of his Opinions should chance to have a Tendency towards it For that is so unfair as well as an undecent Method of managing a Dispute that instead of stifling the old it may serve only to provoke fresh Opposition and inflame where perhaps milder Reasons might convince And besides since every one that publishes his Thoughts with no other Design than for the Benefit of others or to the End he may be better informed if he be in the wrong has a right to be treated with equal Charity or Humanity at least by others it can certainly be no Prejudice even to the right side to allow him a Civility which he has so just a claim to And therefore I shall think my self concerned to examine the Reasonableness of Christianity with such an impartial Temper as it may justly challenge And to be the more distinct and methodical in my Examination I shall consider the chief Parts of it which are these First To shew the Reason of Christ's coming into the World Which the Author tells us was to restore Mankind to that State p. 3 4 5. c. which was forfeited by the Sin of our First Parents But as he makes Adam's Punishment to consist only in a Temporal Death or a total ceasing to be p. 10. so does he confine the End and Design of our Saviour's coming into the World to the freeing us from such a Death only and restoring us to that Immortality which our First Parents lost Which overthrows the Notion of our Saviour's redeeming us from an Eternity of Torments and makes the effect of Original Guilt no more than becoming subject to Death and so destroys in a great measure the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction But how agreeable this will prove to the Tenour of Scripture I shall enquire more hereafter The Second Principal Part of it is to shew what Faith is required to make a Man a Christian And that he asserts to be only the Belief of this one Proposition That Jesus is the Messah p. 30 31 32. c. or which he thinks signifies the same the Son of God He does not deny other Doctrines to be true but maintains that this alone is absolutely necessary to be believed Indeed we all acknowledge this as the Fundamental Article of our Faith as Christians that Jesus is the Messias the Prophet that was to come into the world But here the difference lies between us Whether there is not something more required as necessary to be Believed As that this Messiah was God as well as Man and that through the Merits of his Satisfaction he redeemed us from Eternal Misery c. For the Decision of which we can only appeal to Scripture The Third and Last Part of it which I shall have occasion to take Notice of is this That whatsoever is necessary to be believed to Salvation is contain'd in the Holy Gospels and Acts of the Apostles p. 291 292 c. And that the Epistles which were only occasional Writings and Directions to particular Churches were not design'd to deliver such Fundamental Articles as must necessarily be Believed explicitely by all Christians And therefore an actual Belief of any of the Doctrines therein mentioned is not absolutely required to make a Man a Member of the Christian Church For he thinks a Man may be a Christian and a Believer Vindis p. 31. without actually believing them because those whom our Saviour and his Apostles by their Preaching and Discourses converted to the Faith were made Christians and Believers barely upon the receiving what they Preached unto them long before any of the Epistles were written Upon this Supposition the other two Parts of his Treatise are built and therefore it shall be my Business in the first place to prove that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those delivered in Gospels or Acts which are as absolutely necessary to be Believed and to be made Fundamental Articles of Faith as any other Parts of Revelation It may indeed seem an unnecessary Labour to Vindicate those Sacred Writings which have almost all of them been received from the very first Ages of Christianity with as equal degrees of Assent as all other Parts of Scripture and some of the Doctrines there set down confest to be altogether as necessary to be actually Believed unto Salvation as any whatsoever For what should the reason of all this be if the Epistles were not real and essential Parts of the Rule of Saving Faith Was the Church then Imposed upon or did it of it self enjoin the Belief of any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation when it had no express Commission from God for it For one of these we must grant if the Epistles were not designed to deliver Fundamentals to be actually Believed by all Christians Now if several of the Doctrines contain'd in those Parts of Revelation have all along down from
hereafter have more occasion to consider He that believeth that Jesus is the Messiah hath eternal Life if what is there required to be believed is singly of it self sufficient to Salvation then it must be so as it is there proposed without any farther Explication of it because there is no Explication proposed to be believed upon the like Promise From whence it will follow that the bare Proposition is alone necessary to be Believed without any other Interpretation if any at all may be admitted than what is agreeable to the particular Humours of Men the unhappy Consequences of which will be endless Wranglings and Distractions For which reason it seems evident that all the Fundamental Parts of Faith cannot be comprehended in those Texts alone which are declared to be of that important Nature unless the full Extent and Meaning was there set down and delivered which I cannot find And therefore it can't be denied but that the other parts of Scripture which relate the Grounds and Reasons of such a Faith which is required to Salvation and that explain the Nature and Extent of it are to be looked upon as equally Obligatory whether exprest in Gospels or Epistles For besides if every Text of Scripture must be looked upon as sufficient to Salvation upon the Belief of which Eternal Life is promised even the very Scripture will hardly be found reconcilable to it self For tho' in some places Salvation is promised to those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah yet in others it is declared to be Life Eternal to know the onely true God as well as Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Both of which places if they must be understood in their limited Sence will be almost found contradictory to each other Because the one proposes a larger Faith to Salvation than is required by the other Wherefore it seems more reasonable to understand these and other places of Scripture of the like nature in that Sence which is applied to Faith Fear of God Love Hope and the like when singly made use of to express the whole Duty of a Christian viz. That one that is endued with such a Faith or such Vertues cannot be defective in the Belief of all other Articles or in the Practice of all other Duties For as any of these Vertues when mention'd alone as sufficient to save us cannot be understood exclusively of all others so when Believing in Christ or any other Proposition of that nature is alone required to make a Man a Christian we ought either to understand it as spoken conditionally upon a supposition of the Belief of all other Articles of the Christian Religion or else as designed to denote that as the believing Jesus to be the Christ is the first step to Christianity so he that is once firmly and throughly convinc'd of that will not deny his assent to any other Article of Faith in the whole Christian Profession that shall be required of him From all which it is natural to infer that there must be other Articles of Faith in the Scriptures that are as absolutely necessary to be Believed to Salvation as those to which Eternal Life is expresly promised and that many of those Texts of Scripture which are required to be believed to Salvation are not of themselves exclusive of all others sufficient for that End So that though it should be granted that there are no Articles of Faith in the Epistles so expresly enjoined to be Believed to Salvation as some delivered in the Gospels and Acts yet it will not follow but that some of them may be of as important a Nature and as much to be thought Fundamentals But however it must be considered Secondly that if it should be granted that no Articles were absolutely necessary to be Believed but what were expresly so declared by the Inspired Writers yet there may be produced some Articles from the Epistles that are as much required to be actually believed to Salvation as any of those delivered in the Gospels or Acts as I shall shew in its proper place So that for both these Reasons some of the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles ought to be as earnestly pressed and enjoined to be explicitely Believed upon hazard of Salvation as any found elsewhere in Scripture There are indeed a great many Truths both in the Gospels and Epistles which are only to be Believed upon the general Ground of Faith which is the Veracity of God But those of a higher Nature which have an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind and the Method by which our Saviour has obtain'd it for us are to be explicitely Believed by all in order to their Salvation So that in both Gospels and Epistles there is a twofold Faith requir'd the one depends upon the general Ground of our Belief which relies upon the Veracity of God that every thing which he has Revealed is true The other respects the End for which he has Revealed any thing to us and that is only the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind So that whatsoever in Scripture relates to this End is of more absolute necessity to be Believed to Salvation And this may serve for a General Direction whereby to distinguish fundamental Truths either in Gospels or Epistles or any other parts of Divine Revelation For whatsoever is proposed to our Belief as a necessary Condition in order to our Happiness must be included under this saving Faith And therefore I shall now proceed to shew that the Epistles have as much Right and Title to our Faith as it may be considered in this last sence as any other parts of Revelation since they equally treat of the Covenant of Grace and the Means of Salvation For whatsoever it is that is required of us to be actually believed as a Condition upon which our Happiness depends must be made a Fundamental of our Faith And therefore if the Epistles contain in them any Doctrines of this Nature they cannot be disbelieved without great hazard of our Salvation But First that the Epistles are to be made part of the Rule of Faith by which alone we are to be saved as well as the Gospels or Acts of the Apostles is evident from the Nature of Revelation For if it can be proved that the Epistles are as much a part of Divine Revelation as the other it will be no easy Task to demonstrate that they are not equally to be received especially if it can be made appear that the End of their Revelation was the Eternal Happiness of Mankind which I shall speak to hereafter Now this is the very Reason and Foundation of our Belief of the Christian Religion first that it is Revealed by God and secondly that it has the Attestation of Miracles to confirm it such as can be done by no other Power but Divine For without this we could have no Obligations upon us to believe it because we could have no certain assurance that it came from God But whatsoever is thus
Revealed to us we are under a necessity to believe upon the Veracity of Him that Revealed it And here we are not so to divide our Belief as to confine it to one part of Revelation and deny it to another unless we are assured that it has different degrees of Evidence For this would destroy the force of Revelation and resolve all Religion into the Wills and Humours of Men. There are indeed as has been before observed different Acts of Faith required of us according to the different Matter of Revelation But where the Matter is of as great importance in one place as in another there also must our Assent be equal Unless we can prove that there is not the same certainty for the Revelation i e. That there is not the same Testimony of Divine Miracles to assure us of the Truth of it But here it is not material to examine Whether the Apostles work'd Miracles to evince the Truth of their Doctrines in the Epistles It is enough that their Miracles attested their Divine Mission and were sufficiently demonstrative that their Doctrines had a Divine Authority and Original and were confirmed by a Divine Power For the Design of their Miracles was not to give Authority to such a particular Doctrine only but to testify in general that they had a Commission from God to teach what was necessary to be believed or practiced to Salvation Now that the Apostles wrought many Miracles such as were before done by our Saviour for the Confirmation of their Mission and Doctrines is undeniably evident from the whole History of the Acts where they are said to heal the Sick raise the Dead and to be endued with all other supernatural Gifts which might be sufficient to convince the World that they received their Mission and Authority from God But to what End should the Apostles work Miracles if after all their Doctrines which they deliver'd for Fundamentals were not absolutely necessary to be believed Now Miracles are never wrought but to convince Men of some great Truths which would be of great Importance to them and which perhaps they would not otherwise be induced to believe If therefore the Apostles had such a Power of working Miracles committed to them to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines we are under as great Obligations to make them Articles of our Faith especially if they were designed for such as any other parts of Holy Writ Now what Reason have we to believe the Holy Gospels but only the undeniable Attestation of Miracles But are there not the same for the Confirmation of the Epistles too That is Were not the Authors Divinely Inspired and did they not work Miracles to shew that they were so If then it be granted that the Apostles had this supernatural Power given them to be an unquestionable Evidence of their Inspiration this alone is sufficient to enforce our actual Belief of the Doctrines in the Epistles as much as in the Gospels unless we can shew that the Apostles were not Inspired when they writ them or that their Power of working Miracles to convince the World that they were so was then ceased or else that they did not design any Doctrines in them to be necessary to be believed But if none of these can with any tolerable Reason be pretended there can be little excuse for our not admitting them as necessary and fundamental Parts of the Rule of Faith And this moreover ought to make us very cautious how we rejected them because if we deny such an Authority to the Epistles as requires an absolute necessity of believing any of the Doctrines as therein contain'd we shall have no very strong Arguments remaining whereby to defend those of the Gospels which have only the Authority of Inspirations confirmed by Miracles so that they must unavoidably stand or fall together For if it be granted that the Evidence for the Truth of both be the same and the same Divine Authority stampt upon both we cannot deny that the Measures of our Belief must be equally taken from them both where the Matter is of the same importance And this will necessarily lead us to these Conclusions First That whatsoever we are firmly assured is Revealed by God we are obliged to believe it upon his Veracity since he neither can or will Reveal any thing but what is undeniably true Secondly That whatsoever is made by this Revelation a fundamental Article of our Faith we cannot be ignorant of without great hazard of our Salvation Thirdly and Lastly For the true Knowledge of any Article of Faith we must not judge of it from some particular Place but from the universal Consent and Harmony of Revelation And now since the Epistles must be granted to be a particular Revelation I would ask to what End there should be this Revelation and several Doctrines therein deliver'd which concern both our Faith and Practice if there was no necessity for them in order to Salvation 1 Cor. 14.37 Why should the Inspired Writers give any Instructions to a Church for the Commandments of God if yet without the least hazard of Salvation they might be ignorant of them For it does not seem consistent with the End or Nature of Revelation which under the Christian Dispensation was designed only for the eternal Advantage of Mankind that no parts of it deliver'd in the Epistles which are all of them of Divine Revelation should be absolutely necessary for that End and that those who had the Name and Benefit of Christians should not be indispensably obliged to form their Faith or govern their Practice according to its Directions Certainly any one that reads and considers the Epistles impartially must judge that the Authors did design some parts of them at least for Rules to guide Men in the way to Happiness without the Observance of which those to whom they should be known could not be saved For if all the Instructions in the Epistles might be safely disregarded then their Inspiration was in vain Since if Men might be as easily saved without them the Revelation must be confest to be superfluous If it be said that the Doctrines were only writ for the use of particular Churches yet that though it should be granted which there is no reason for will prove nothing unless it appears that there were no general Directions designed which are of the same importance to all Christians now that they could be of to any particular Church then for certainly what was necessary to be believed to Salvation by the Members of a Church in the Apostles days must be so now and to the end of the World If it be demanded that if there are any such Fundamentals in the Epistles as we contend for we should draw out a Scheme of them just so many and no more that are to be explicitely believed to Salvation and which will equally oblige all Mankind tho' we should not be able to satisfy this Demand yet it will be sufficient to our
present Purpose if we can produce any Doctrines that are absolutely enjoined to be believed by all Christians and that are either distinct from or more fully exprest than any of those contain'd in the Gospels or Acts as I shall hereafter endeavour to shew there are some of that nature without the Belief of which though we may grant Men might be saved before they were known yet when they were divulged they could no more be stiled true Christians without the Belief of them than if they had not at all believed To instance in a like case None could any longer be called Christians or admitted into that Communion after that form of Baptism was requir'd in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost tho' they might have that Denomination before who did not acknowledge their Faith in the Holy Trinity since as none could be Baptized Christians without the Confession of that Faith so none could continue in the Number of Christians that denied it But of this more in its proper place And thus we may be convinced from the Nature of Revelation that all the parts of it have an equal Authority and that where the End of the Revelation was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind as I shall hereafter shew was the Apostles Designs in writing their Epistles there the same Acts of Faith are required of us But before I proceed any farther in the Vindication of these sacred Writings it will be necessary to consider an Objection or rather an Evasion of our Author's in his Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity Vindic. p. 19. which may seem to render what has been hitherto urged superfluous since it intimates that he believes as much of the Epistles and in as true a sence as any man whatsoever And for the Proof of this he cites what he had before declared in the Reasonableness of Christianity it self p. 299. These Holy Writers viz. The Pen-men of the Scriptures inspired from above writ nothing but Truth and in most places very weighty Truths to us now for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it And again p. 299. The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths of which none that is once known to be such i. e. Revealed may or ought to be disbelieved And if this as he goes on does not satisfy you that I have as high a Veneration for the Epistles as you or any one can have I require you to publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt of them Indeed if he said no more concerning the Epistles than what is mention'd in these Passages there would not have been so much occasion for a Defense of them But however even these do not seem altogether unexceptionable for though these allow the Truths contain'd in the Epistles to be Objects of our Faith yet they do not suppose them or any parts of them to be more so than any other places of Scripture which have no relation to the Salvation of Mankind and which we are only bound to believe to be true upon the Veracity of God that reveal'd them For that this is all which the Author meant is very plain from what he maintains a little after Vindic. p. 31. viz. That all the rest of the Inspired Writings or if you please Articles are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with what was preacht by our Saviour and his Apostles by which he only means what is recorded in the Gospels and Acts that I deny So that it plainly appears that all the Respect which he professes for the Epistles consists only in this That he believes them to be true but that the Doctrines contain'd in them are no more necessary to be actually believed or to be made fundamental Articles of Faith than any indifferent or Historical Matters in the Bible all which we believe to be true because they are contain'd in that Book which we are fully perswaded is the Word of God So that a bare Assent to them only as they are true is no higher an Act of Faith than the believing that there was such an Apostle as St. Paul and that he was the Author of such Epistles But if our Author does indeed believe that all is true which is contain'd in the Epistles why should he deny that any of the Truths therein mention'd are to be made Fundamentals For methinks it would be no great Imposition to be obliged to believe that as a necessary Article of Faith in order to Salvation which he is already perswaded is a real Truth But besides this is what we contend for that there are Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles that are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with those in the Gospels or in the Acts of the Apostles as being of as great Importance to us and therefore they are also to be believed upon another Ground besides that of meer Revelation And for the Proof of this it will be necessary to consider in the second place the Authority that our Saviour intrusted in his Apostles Which is exprest in their Commission given them by Christ immediately before his Ascension in these words Go and teach all Nations And elsewhere Mat. 28 19. Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me even so send I you Which Commission as it invests them with as full a Power of Teaching whatsoever was necessary to Salvation so it lays as great a necessity upon others of Believing them as if Christ himself had taught in his own Person For whosoever acts by another's Commission acts in his Name and whatever he does by vertue of that Commission it is look'd upon to be his who gave him such Authority Now that the Apostles did not exceed this Authority or teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men is very evident since it is granted they were Divinely Inspired and taught nothing as necessary to be believ'd but what they received from God So that all that can be here objected seems to be this That the Apostles had no Commission to write any fundamental Doctrines in the Epistles but only in their Sermons which are set down in the Acts of the Apostles If this indeed could be proved it would be a material Objection but if there is not the least shadow of Reason to countenance such a groundless Supposition without shewing that the Apostles did exceed their Commission though at the same time they were Divinely Inspired then we are bound to acknowledge that the Epistles as well as the Acts are an indispensible part of the Rule of our Faith for God himself has put no difference betwixt them But there is yet something more to be observed in the Epistles written by St. Paul which are much the greatest part and that is that he received his Doctrines therein contain'd by a more particular
Revelation than any of the other Apostles For he was neither instructed by Christ himself while on Earth as not being his Disciple nor had he any account of the Doctrines which he taught from those Apostles who had constantly heard him but he received all his Instructions immediately from Heaven as he himself hath told us in the first Chap. of Gal. 11 and 12. Ver. But I certifie you Brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ From whence 't is plain that his Doctrines were of equal Authority with what were taught by Christ himself and that the things which he writ as himself testifies of them in the 1 Cor. 14.37 were the Commandments of the Lord i. e. Were of as great necessity to be believed to Salvation as any other parts of Revelation which cannot in the least be doubted if we also consider that Men are to be Judg'd by that Gospel which St. Paul taught at the last Day As he assures us in Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel which Gospel he must mean that Epistle to be part of for he had taught those at Rome no otherwise than by this Epistle for he never had been there when this was writ nor do we know that he had sent them any Epistle before it But besides the Doctrines which St. Paul has delivered in this Epistle to the Romans are no more than what he had before taught to others as is plain from his own words to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.27 That he had not shun'd to declare unto them all the Counsel of God Which he would not have said if he had a Commission to make any thing necessary to be believed to Salvation by others which was not revealed to them thro' his Ministry So that as both what he taught and writ in his Epistles are the same Doctrines so are they both equally Obligatory But Lastly There is this more remarkable of St. Paul that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and for the most part the first that had preach'd the Gospel amongst them And therefore what he taught could be the only Rule of Faith to them especially till the Gospels were written which none of them were till some time after he had begun to preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles From whence it follows that as what he taught was the only Rule of Faith to them before they could have the Gospels so neither would his Doctrines after the publishing the Gospels be less necessary to be believed since their Authority would be much rather increased than lessened by the assistance of so great a Foundation as the Gospels to support them What I have here said of St. Paul is not with a Design to lessen the Authority of the other Epistles for they are all Inspired by the same Holy Spirit and are therefore equally necessary to be believed but only as we have a greater Number of his transmitted to us than of all the other Apostles so I thought it most necessary to shew that the reason why we are obliged to believe them to Salvation was as great as can possibly be produced for any thing of that Nature And thus I hope I have made it fully evident that the Apostles had a sufficient Commission from God to make those Doctrines which they taught in their Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation And that they did declare some of their Doctrines to be of this Nature I shall come now in a little time to prove And Thirdly The End and Reason for which the Epistles were written will make this more fully appear For to make any thing more firmly believed and assented to there is not only required a certain knowledge of its being Revealed but also of the End for which it was Revealed Now nothing can be more worthy of God and more beneficial to Man than the revealing the Conditions which he has made necessary for our obtaining Happiness and this is fully done in the Covenant of the Gospel And as the Conditions are necessary to be known before we can perform them so God has taken sufficient care to give us a full Revelation of them First In a large History of the Method that Christ made use of for the purchasing our Redemption and the Miracles which he wrought for the Confirmation of his Mission and Doctrine And Secondly In a more full and clear Manifestation by the coming of the Holy Ghost of all those things which were required of us to be believed And this he intrusted to the Apostles who were to that End both Divinely Inspired and had the Power of working Miracles committed to them to establish and confirm the Truth of their Doctrines So that it may be no very great Absurdity to affirm that all things which are necessary to be believed to Salvation are not fully and clearly contain'd in the Gospels Indeed * Tota Religio Christiana omnia illius dogmata fidei praecepta vitae ad salutem necessaria quatuor Evangeliis imo unico Mathaei Evangelio continentur neque ex Epistolis Apostolorum imo nec Apostoli Pauli ullum dogma ad salutem creditu necessarium proferetur quod non antea in Evangelio clare expressum exstat Ausim itaeque dicere etiamsi sola quatuor exstarent Evangelian os perfectum habituros Canonem seu Regulam fidei ac Morum p. 189. Limborch in his Conference with a Learned Jew in his Book De Veritate Religionis Christianae seems to have granted more than he had Authority for in asserting that All the Doctrines of Faith and Practice necessary to Salvation are contain'd in the four Evangelists or even in St. Matthew only and that none of the Epistles of St. Paul or the rest of the Apostles contain any Doctrine necessary to be believed to Salvation which was not clearly and expresly set down before in the Gospels c. Whether all the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity were before laid down in the Gospels is indeed made by some a matter of Dispute but that many of them are not there so plain and intelligible as in the Epistles is none For it may be very justly question'd if the Epistles had not been written whether we should not have remained wholly ignorant of the true meaning of several things in the Gospels Particularly as to the Reasons of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour for I much doubt whether we should so unanimously have believed that Christ's Death was a Sacrifice for our Sins or that by vertue of his Resurrection alone we should all be raised again at the last day from the alone Declaration of the Gospels Since neither of these can be so clearly proved from the Gospels as from the Epistles the latter of which is I think no where mentioned in
the Gospels and cannot directly be proved from them So that all our Belief of it must have been by far-fetcht Inferences which very probably we should never have thought of had not the Epistles been written This fore-mention'd Concession of Limborch's seems occasion'd by the Jew 's asserting that all their Religion was contain'd in the five Books of Moses and that they were not obliged to the Observation or absolute necessity of believing any of the rest as part of their Rule of Faith and thereupon he prefers their Religion before the Christian as being much more easily understood because contain'd in a much lesser compass But in Answer to this Limborch was under no necessity in order to prove the Christian superiour to the Jewish Religion on the account of its Brevity to confine all the Articles of Christianity to one or all the Gospels For he might very fairly have denied that Assertion of the Jew for it was only one Sect amongst the Jews that of the Sadducees who were of that Opinion and who gave such Preference to the Books of Moses The Pharisees the more numerous Sect paid the same Respect to all the other Inspired Writings and Prophecies and placed their Religion as much in the Belief of them as in those deliver'd by Moses And indeed if no other Books of the Old Testament were to be received for Canonical or part of the Jewish Revelation they must have but a very small Esteem for the Prophecies concerning their expected Messiah in which a great part of their Religion that wherein their Faith was concerned ought to consist For the believing that the Messiah would come is declar'd by * Porta Mosis p. 176. Maimonides to be one of the Fundamentals of the Jewish Religion But if it be Limborch's Design in this place as indeed it seems to be to vindicate the Honour of our Religion by contracting all the Articles of it into a very narrow Compass that they may be more easily known I think that this does not much advance that End For it seems more for the Honour of God and Religion too that all the parts both of Faith and Practice should be laid down in the largest and plainest Terms imaginable to take off all occasions of Errors and Mistakes Which Men would almost unavoidably fall into if all Matters of Belief and Practice were deliver'd like the Heathen Oracles of Old in a short and consequently obscure Form Indeed it is necessary that there should be a Summary of all the Articles of our Faith which might be easily remembered by every Capacity But it is as necessary also to prevent all Disputes concerning the Meaning of every particular Article that we should have Recourse to a large full and infallible Explanation of them such as is all the parts of Divine Revelation But that the Gospels do not fully and clearly contain every thing that is absolutely necessary to be believed seems plain upon many Accounts 1. For first If in the Gospels or particularly in St. Matthew was contain'd the whole Rule of Faith then the Doctrines therein taught by our Saviour were a sufficient Rule of Faith to the Apostles themselves but if they were not so to them they cannot be said to be so to any others But that they were not so to them before the coming of the Holy Ghost seems plain from their mis-understanding the Reason of Jesus's being the Messiah they thought it was to re-instate the Jews in their Temporal Grandeur and Glory As is evident from that Question they put to our Saviour Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel But besides those Words of our Saviour I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot hear them now necessarily suppose that there were other Doctrines yet to be known besides those he had already taught them 2. The Gospels are for the most part Historical and contain an account of our Saviour's miraculous Birth the Miracles which he wrought to confirm his Mission from God his Sufferings Resurrection and Ascension c. are intersperst with many excellent Precepts but contain but few however not all the Matters of Faith 3. Our Saviour generally deliver'd himself very mystically especially about those things which concern'd Himself And left Men rather to draw Conclusions from his Actions for their Belief of him than from any clear Manifestation of himself So that no adequate Rule of Faith could be drawn from the History of Him 4. The Inspired Pen-men of the Gospels were only to draw up the History without their own Remarks upon it and therefore were not in that to tell us what we were to believe any farther than our Saviour had already done through the Course of his Ministry And therefore our Faith is not to be measured by the Gospels only For tho' St. John in the beginning of his Gospel gives us larger Proofs of Christ's Divinity than is to be found in any other parts of the Gospels by introducing our Saviour with such Names and Titles as were usually by the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Lib. de Som. And in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. de Agric. ' o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. de Som. In some places he calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plotinus hath also done En. 5. lib. 5. c. 3. Jews appropriated to their expected Messiah and by which both they and the Platonists meant a Divine Person and which they were at that time commonly known to signifie yet he has not there deliver'd any adequate Rule of Faith Fifthly and Lastly The Promise which our Blessed Saviour made to his Disciples to send them the Holy Ghost to instruct them farther what they ought to believe concerning Him and to guide them into all Truth which cannot signify bringing all things to their Remembrance but teaching them all things Joh. 14.26 plainly intimates that there was something more required as necessary to be believed which himself had not fully declar'd to them And we no where find nor have we any reason to think that the Disciples themselves who were constantly with our Saviour had any full and distinct Notions of all that was necessary to be believed concerning Him till they had received the Holy Ghost And therefore all that our Saviour himself taught in his own Person or what is revealed in the Gospels only cannot be made any adequate Rule of Faith But however should it be granted That all things necessary to be believed to Salvation are contain'd in the Gospels yet still it might be justly questioned Whether the Epistles also together with the Gospels are not to be looked upon as part of the Rule of Faith and whether the Explanations and Illustrations contain'd in the Epistles of Doctrines more imperfectly set down in the Gospels are not equally to be believed with the Evangelical Writings And therefore though it should be admitted that all or most of the Truths deliver'd in the Epistles are only
Explanations of something before Revealed in the Gospels yet since the Authors of them were Divinely Inspired they are to be received as part of the Rule of Faith as well as the Gospels themselves since an infallible divine Explanation of a Doctrine is as necessary to be believed as the Doctrine it self So that if it should be granted that this was one End of writing the Epistles to set those Things in a clearer Light which were before taught by our Saviour yet this will not be sufficient to invalidate their Authority or render them less necessary to be believed For thus far * Verum tanta est erga genus hominum benignitas divina ut quae in Evangeliis plene ac perfecte tradita sunt etiam in Apostolorum Epistolis saepius repeti à variis objectionibus Vindicari ad majorem fidelium in fide confirmationem ac constantiam singulari Providentia voluerit ibid. Limborch seems to have granted That though all the Doctrines of Christianity are fully and perfectly deliver'd in the Gospels yet God has so much expressed his Goodness towards Mankind as to take care by a particular Providence that they should be very often repeated in the Epistles that they might be freed from all Objections to the greater strengthning and confirming Believers in the Faith And thus it seems very evident for many Reasons that the Gospels alone are not to be made the Measure of our Faith Nor will the Acts of the Apostles together with the Gospels afford us a full and clear Scheme of whatsoever is necessary to be believed For these also are chiefly Historical and contain an account of the Mission of the Holy Ghost of the Miracles that were done by the Apostles of the Converts they made to Christianity and where they Preacht but we have not there any full and large account of their Doctrines We are indeed told that they Preacht Faith in Christ Jesus Act. 20.21 and Repentance towards God But few or no particulars of those Duties or how far they extended which seem on purpose reserved for the Epistles where they are more fully treated of But it is urged That if the Apostles Creed is a Summary of all that is necessary to be believed and if all the Articles of that are to be found in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles then it is in them alone that we are to look for Fundamentals To this it may be answered That it can indeed hardly be denied but that we may draw most of the Articles of the Apostles Creed from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles but these are not to be looked upon as the only Fundamentals unless we also firmly believe the natural Consequences and Conclusions from them and the frequent Explanations of them which are set down in the other parts of Revelation To instance only in the first Article I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth Now we cannot be supposed to be confin'd by this to the believing just so much of Him and no more For we are to understand by these Words whatsoever is implied in them and whatsoever else the Scripture has reveal'd to us concerning Him And the like Rule must be observed in all the other Articles And besides this is justly believed to be the first Fundamental of all Reveal'd Religion which is supposed in our Creed that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration and that whatsoever is there laid down as necessary to Salvation must be believed as such And upon this it is that the Creed is built So that as we must believe That Summary of our Faith to be taken from Revelation so also that the only true Explanation of it is to be found there For necessary Deductions from such Truths are as much Fundamentals as the Principles from which they are drawn So that we cannot in a true Sence believe all the Articles of our Creed unless we also are perswaded that those places of Scripture which contain a full and express Explanation of them are necessary parts of our Faith But our Author urges That if all p. 297. or most of the Truths declared in the Epistles were to be received and believed as Fundamental Articles what then became of those Christians that were fallen asleep as St. Paul witnesseth in the 1 Cor. many were before those things in the Epistles were revealed to them Most of the Epistles not being written till above Twenty Years after our Saviour's Ascension and some after Thirty To this we may answer First That some of the Epistles were written before some of the Gospels particularly that of St. John which was not writ till almost Threescore Years after our Saviour's Ascension So that this Argument will exclude that Gospel from containing any part of the Fundamentals of Faith as well as the Epistles Secondly It is to be considered that a great many of the Epistles as the first and second to the Thessalonians which were writ sooner than Twenty Years after Christ's Ascension as also the first and second to the Corinthians to the Galatians and Romans were all written before the History of the Acts of the Apostles which is continued to the time of St. Paul's being first at Rome which was not till near Thirty Years after our Saviour's Ascension and therefore that History which takes in all that time cannot be thought to be of greater Authority than those Epistles which were writ much sooner So that this Argument if it is at all to the Purpose must give the Preference to some of the Epistles at least before the Acts of the Apostles But Thirdly It cannot be supposed but that many Christians were fallen asleep before the writing any of the Gospels since St. Matthew's Gospel which was the first was not written till about Eleven Years after our Saviour's Ascension So that neither can this Argument be any Prejudice to the Authority of the Epistles And therefore Fourthly It remains that all the Rule of Faith to the Believing Christians that were Converted for some Years after our Saviour's Ascension must be taken from what was taught by the Apostles And therefore if what they then taught was the Rule of Faith to those who were Converted to Christianity it is very reasonable to suppose that the Epistles which without doubt contain the very same Doctrines which they then taught are now to be received as absolutely necessary to be believed For this we may be certain of that the contrary can never be proved that the Apostles upon their receiving the Holy Ghost taught the very same Doctrines wherever they Preacht which they afterwards deliver'd in their Epistles And therefore if they writ no other Doctrines than what they taught and what they taught were Fundamentals then what they writ must be the same too And if this should be granted which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity so much contends for p. 294. That the Epistles being all written to those
who were Believers and Christians the occasion and end of writing them could not be to instruct them in that which was necessary to make them Christians Yet this seems rather to strengthen than lessen the force of the Argument that the Apostles had taught those same Doctrines for Fundamentals before which they afterwards communicated as sacred Depositums of their Faith For it is strange to suppose that a Doctrine should cease to be a Fundamental to those who had known it before For though the Epistles might not be written to those who believed all the Truths contain'd in them to instruct them in any thing which they were ignorant of yet it might be for this End to put them in remembrance of all the parts of their Profession to prevent all Disputes that possibly might arise and to remain as exact Rules and Directions how they might convert and instruct others But says our Author p. 294. If those to whom the Epistles were written wanted not such fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion without a Belief of which they could not be saved it cannot be supposed that the sending of such Fundamentals was the reason of the Apostles writing to any of them But how can it be proved that all those the Epistles were written to understood all the Fundamentals of Religion May there not be supposed to be some less knowing amongst them and some who would not throughly believe several Doctrines of Christianity without such an Authority as the Apostles had to convince them of the Truth of them But however if this Argument of Men's knowing the Fundamentals contain'd in the Epistles before they were sent to them may be sufficient to overthrow their Authority the Gospels also I am afraid will not escape much better For we cannot suppose but almost all Christians were very well acquainted with the Doctrines taught by our Saviour before the Gospels were written but 't is to be hoped that they ought not upon that account to be thought less necessary to be believed even by those who had been already converted to the Faith For certainly they cannot be supposed to contain less fundamental Truths because they have deliver'd nothing but what was received before for the Doctrine of our Saviour Nor can it be imagined that the Gospel of St. Luke which was writ with a particular Design to Theophilus who was already a Believer and a Christian should contain less fundamental Truths or less necessary to be believed than those which perhaps were written with a more general Design The Acts were also written to the same Theophilus and therefore if our Author's Argument will prove any thing it must exclude both that and the foremention'd Gospel as well as the Epistles from being any part of the Rule of Faith For they were more certainly written to a Believer and a Christian and One who wanted not the fundamental Articles of Christianity without a Belief of which he could not be saved than can be proved of so much as any of the Epistles And therefore it will follow notwithstanding all our Author has urged to the contrary that it is from the Epistles as well as the Gospels that we are to learn what are the fundamental Articles of Faith For if in the History of the Evangelists and the Acts all things are so plainly set down that no Body can mistake them it must unavoidably be granted That the Apostles tho' Inspired by the Holy Ghost were yet very unfaithful to their Trust in clogging Men's Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief Since they could not be ignorant that what they writ would be as much thought necessary to be believed as what was taught by our Saviour himself And therefore the Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for writing such Doctrines in their Epistles which tho' they were not necessary to be believed might yet give occasion to a great many unwary Christians to think far otherwise and embrace them as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the writing their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were Converted to the Faith we are obliged to receive them as such And this might be made appear from very many places of them St. Paul thus expresses himself 1 Cor. 14.37 That if any Man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord. And in the beginning of the next Chapter Moreover Brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you by which also ye are saved c For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our Sins according to the Scriptures By which Words he re-minds them of a Primary Article of their Faith without the Remembrance of which he shews they have believed in vain For the design of the Apostle's Argument is to acquaint them that they could not be saved without they kept in Memory what he had before Preached unto them v. 2. which was amongst other things the fore-mention'd Article the Belief of which if there is any Force in his Argument he declares to be absolutely necessary to Salvation After this he mentions to them some other Articles which he enjoins them to believe that their Faith might not be in vain And these are the Belief not only of Christ's Resurrection but that by vertue of his rising from the Dead we also should be raised again And also that in Adam all die For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And these are Articles that are absolutely necessary to be believed for upon these the Apostle lays the great Foundation of Christianity and yet the Two last of them are not to be found either in the Gospels or Acts. There are also other places in the Epistles which are expresly required to be believed to Salvation as Rom. 10.9 For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And that in Timothy Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness that is of the Christian Religion God was manifest in the Flesh And in St. Joh. Epist 1. C. 4. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God and he that does not confess it is not of God which shews the necessity of believing Christ's Incarnation And again We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God which is a distinct act of Faith from believing him to be the Messiah as I shall shew
to the Colossians in these Words Col. 4.16 And when this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea which very probably is that which is now inscribed to the Ephesians For it seems most likely that it was sent to those of Laodicea where St. Paul had never been at that time they having lately received the Christian Religion and had a wrong Inscription put to it by the Collector of the Epistles into one Body Which was an easy Mistake considering that a Copy of it was very probably at Ephesus as well as Coloss as appears from the Câ—ose of that Epistle and other places Some indeed are of Opinion that St. Paul did not write any Epistle to the Laodiceans and that the Passage in the Colossians that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea must mean an Epistle writ by the Laodiceans to St. Paul Of this Opinion is †Baronius Annal. Tom. 1. ad Ann. D. 60. Baronius and cites both Chrysostom and Theodoret for it who thought that St. Paul never writ any Epistle to the Laodiceans But there is little ground for this Opinion especially from the Words in the Colossians that from Laodicea for the natural Meaning of them is that they of Coloss should receive that Epistle which was writ to Laodicea from thence and read it in their Assembly And this meaning Dr. Hammond applies to it in his Note on the Place And he is of Opinion that a Copy of it was sent from Ephesus to Laodicea since Tertullian affirms that the Epistle which is inscribed to the Ephesians was sent to those of Laodicea But he thinks this solves the Difficulty that Ephesus being the Metropolis of Asia and Laodicea being a Church within that Circuit it might not only be design'd thither as well as Ephesus but that it was also Copied out and communicated to them and so might be called the Epistle to the Laodiceans or which the Church of Laodicea had received But tho' indeed it might have been so yet I think it most probable that it was writ only to those of Laodicea and not to Ephesus For as it is certain that St. Paul did write an Epistle to the Laodiceans which we have not under that Title so is there great reason to imagine that this Epistle was not writ to the Ephesians For St. Paul had liv'd three Years at Ephesus as is plain from the History of the Acts and therefore it is not probable that he would write to them there as in the third Chapter If so be ye have heard of the dispensation of the Gospel given me to you-ward And besides it is very strange that if this was writ to the Ephesians amongst whom St. Paul had so long been there should be no Salutations in it to any particular Persons which is so very usual in the rest of his Epistles And thus it seems most probable that this Epistle was that which was mention'd to be writ to them of Laodicea And this Remark is the more material because if this Epistle is looked upon as it seems designed to contain several Doctrines necessary to be believed by a Church at its first Constitution the Doctrines contain'd in it may carry a greater weight with them especially amongst those who will admit no other Doctrines as necessary to be believed but what have such a reason to confirm them But however it be this is certain that as this Epistle was writ by one Divinely Inspired so it is necessary to be believed to Salvation in those places where the Sense is plain and easy and of the highest Importance to us whether it was written with a Design to instruct or to confirm a Church in the Christian Faith But to return Let us suppose that some of the Epistles contain Matter proper to those Times and Churches to which they were sent May not the same Objection be raised against the Gospels most of our Saviour's Parables and very many of his Discourses relate to the State of the Jews at that time and the Destruction of their Nation and Religion which was soon after accomplished Now there is nothing in the Gospels but what was thought at first by the Apostles to respect the Jews only nay and for some time after the Mission of the Holy Ghost St. Peter particularly amongst the Apostles had such a wrong Notion of our Saviour's coming as to imagine that the Jews were only to reap the Advantage of it as may be seen in the History of the Acts. But tho' in a little time the Reason of our Saviour's coming was more fully understood yet at the first it was looked upon as particular and all his Discourses were interpreted to such a Sence Which ought to caution us in judging of the Epistles which notwithstanding their Directions to particular Churches might be design'd for general Instructions And we have good Reason to judge that there are no Cases set down but what may on some Occasions be of use to all Christians But what if it should be granted that they were writ upon particular Occasions will this hinder them from being necessary to be believed If it will then some of the Gospels must suffer too For the Gospel of St. Luke seems to be writ particularly to give Theophilus a more perfect knowledge of those things in which he had been before instructed as I have already observed of it as well as of the Acts which were writ by the same Evangelist upon the same Occasion In like manner the Gospel of St. John was writ upon a particular Occasion to confute the Heresies of the Cerinthians and Ebionites who denied the Divinity of our Saviour as is confessed by the most Ancient Fathers and has lately been very * Vid. Dr. Williams 's Vindicat. of the late Arch-bishop's Sermons p. 16 17 c. Joan. Cleric in 18. prima Commenta Evang Joan. p. 15 16 c. 80. Learnedly proved and must it upon this account be rejected as not necessary to Salvation So that if all parts of the Scripture must be laid aside that were writ upon particular Occasions our Faith would lie indeed in a much narrower Compass But we should not be I am afraid the better Christians for it For tho' some things might be writ upon particular Occasions yet it will be difficult to prove that the Holy Spirit did not design them for general Directions and as necessary to be believed to Salvation by others as those to whom they were writ But besides whatever particular Occasions there might be for some of the Epistles yet the general Design of them is to settle and strengthen Men in the Faith and to be perpetual Guides and Directions to them in the way to Happiness and indeed if there had been no occasion for this they certainly would not have been written But it was also necessary that the Apostles should dictate and leave
behind them some certain Measures of Belief since their Authority and the certain Evidence of their Inspiration would have very great Influence on those who were not yet Christians that they might be more easily perswaded to embrace Christianity and also might be of vast Importance for the preventing all Differences that might arise about the Meaning of the Gospels and lastly would be of perpetual use for the teaching all sorts of Christians more easily to comprehend the Method Reasons and Grounds of the great Work of our Redemption The two last of which are more fully laid down and explain'd in the Epistles than in any other parts of Holy Writ And if the Knowledge of them is necessary to Salvation then it will be as necessary to believe those places of Scripture where they are most fully stated and most clearly delivered For since there is no part of Scripture where we are told how we were Redeemed why Christ Redeemed us and from what so clearly and expresly as in the Epistles we must have Recourse to them for our right understanding of those Doctrines And therefore there both was an absolute necessity for the writing of the Epistles and also is for our firm Belief of them as necessary to Salvation And thus far I hope we have established the Divine Authority of the Epistles and the absolute necessity of believing several of the Doctrines deliver'd in them But it must yet be confessed that all that has been proved will be little to the Purpose if it can be shewn in the Fourth Place that the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles are contradictory to those in the Gospels But this I don 't find in the least pretended for it would be in vain to shew Contradictions in them after they are allowed to be of Divine Inspiration As for there being several things above our Reason in the Epistles the same Objection may be made against the Gospels but this cannot be sufficient to invalidate the Authority of either of them The Gospels and Epistles both teach the same Christianity And tho' some Points of Faith are more fully and clearly laid down in one than the other and some things requir'd to be believed in the Epistles which are not mention'd in the Gospels yet they do not disagree in any one Particular But both tend to one and the same End the advancing the Happiness of Mankind And this leads me to consider the Fifth Argument whereby it may appear whether or no the Epistles are necessary to be believed and that is the Matter they contain For this is the only Plea remaining why they should be rejected because the Matters which they treat of are of no Concern to us that they have no relation to the Salvation of Mankind and therefore cannot be thought necessary to be believed upon that account which is the great End of Revelation For here the great stress of the Controversy lies whether the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles are of such Importance as will make them necessary to be believed or to be an indispensible part of the Rule of Faith But I hope I have already made it appear that there are several Doctrines of this Nature in the Epistles from the Apostle's Design in writing them and from those Texts I have before produced from them and therefore I shall not insist any more upon this Head But our Author objects that if there are any fundamental Articles in the Epistles yet they are so promiscuously deliver'd with other Truths that they are not to be distinguished from them And this he now tells us was the reason why he did not go through the Writings in the Epistles Vindic. p. 14. to collect the fundamental Articles of Faith as he had through the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles because those fundamental Articles were in those Epistles promiscuously and without distinction mixt with other Truths And therefore we shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and the Apostles to those who were yet ignorant of the Faith and unconverted But how are these Fundamental Points to be found in the Gospels and Acts better than in the Epistles Are there in them nothing but Fundamentals Or are not these Fundamentals mixt with other Truths of a quite different Nature that have no respect to Man's Salvation And if so as is very apparent what mighty Advantage have the Gospels beyond the Epistles upon this account Matters of Faith and Matters of Practice Fundamentals and Things indifferent are promiscuously mixt together in both But yet there is no great difficulty in discerning one from another in them For the meanest Capacity can easily apprehend a difference between those things which are proposed to our Belief and those to our Practice what are those which have a near respect to the Covenant of Grace and the Means of Salvation and those which are more forreign to that End And this difference is as easily perceived in the Epistles as in the Gospels because the Terms of Salvation are as plainly and clearly set down in one as the other But it is objected that several Things in the Epistles are differently interpreted and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation because Men are not agreed in their Opinions concerning them To this it may be answered first That some Men are of different Opinions in their Interpretations of several places of the Gospels as well as of the Epistles But secondly it may be observed that the great and fundamental Truths in both have been always understood in one and the same Sence by the whole Catholick Church and those who have dissented from the universally received Interpretation have been accounted Enemies to the true Christian Faith For in these Cases Mistakes are generally wilful and it is not easy to interpret any Doctrines in Scripture differently from what the Church has already done if we take the most easy and natural Meaning of it For the Sense of Fundamentals is not so obscure but a willing Mind may easily apprehend it But Lastly We may add to all this the Consent of the Universal Church in all Ages for the necessity of believing the Epistles and several Articles delivered in them as necessary to Salvation For they have been hitherto esteemed by all Orthodox Christians as part of the Canon of Scripture or Rule of Saving Faith and received and believed accordingly And if this Argument will be of no Force to convince us of the necessity of believing them to Salvation we must at the same time part with one very good Reason for our belief of the Holy Gospels For this is alleged for an Argument by our Church in the Sixth Article for our belief of all the received parts of Scripture that there has never been any doubt of their Authority in the Church And if this universal Consent will be an Argument for the Gospels it cannot also be denied to be a very great
Evidence for the Truth of his Doctrine than his Death could possibly be But if we should say that he Died to gain us an Immortality which we lost by Adam yet this would not put a stop to his Enquiry for if this was all he Died for what should be the Meaning of those places in Scripture where he is said to be made Sin for us to free us from the Wrath to come For the frequent Repetition of his suffering for our Sins necessarily supposes that there was some severe Punishment due to them which we should otherwise have suffered But if upon his farther Enquiry why this one Article should only be required necessarily to be believed we should inform him that this is all that is required in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles and that we are not obliged to an explicite Belief of any Doctrines delivered in other parts of the New Testament yet this would never satisfy because as he would easily perceive the Falsity of the former so it would be difficult to convince him of the other if he was perswaded that the Epistles had as great an Authority stampt upon them by being Divinely Inspired as any other parts of Scripture and that the Apostles had the same Commission from God in the writing their Epistles as in any other parts of their Ministry And Lastly If this Illiterate Man should demand Whether this Messiah is Man or God and whether we are not obliged to believe him to be God because Scripture has in divers places asserted his Divinity and because in the Form of Baptism by which we are made Christians He is represented as equal to God the Father if he should be answered That if those places meant any thing it must be some other Sence than we generally understand by them or at least that they do not require an actual Belief of that Doctrine to Salvation or that it is not material what we believe our Saviour to be so long as we acknowledge him to be the Messiah yet this would run him still into greater Perplexities and make him throw aside all in general rather than take up with such a Partial Religion For whatsoever is irreconcilable with all the parts of Revelation will never perswade any Considering Man to Embrace it that believes there is an Equal Authority from God for the whole Such a Scheme of Faith which our Author has drawn up I am afraid will give no better Satisfaction to those who are for searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so The Holy Bible especially the New Testament is not so very large but that the Knowledge of it particularly where our Salvation is concern'd may be easily attain'd by the meanest Capacities Nor are there such Intricacies in the Matters of Faith but that a willing Mind may see sufficient Reason for assenting to them not because he can comprehend the Depths of them but because he perceives it is his Duty to Believe them since God that cannot Lie has assuredly Reveal'd them and made them necessary to be Believed in order to Salvation And why may not Almighty God that has contrived such a Salvation for us as our greatest Wisdom could never have discovered oblige us to the Belief of some things which our deepest Reasons cannot now comprehend Indeed we might with very great Reason complain if God had laid a necessity upon us of clearly Understanding whatsoever he has required of us to Believe I mean as to the Manner of it because he has not been pleased to explain the Manner But since all that he has enjoin'd us is only a firm Belief of whatsoever he has Reveal'd we ought in all Humility to submit our selves to his Wisdom and wait for a fuller Intuition into those Mysteries in the other World which we must be Ignorant of in this And there is no Question to be made but that a great many Things are hid from our present Views and which yet are required of us to be Believed on purpose to heighten our Desires after those higher Degrees of Knowledge which are particularly reserv'd for the next Life It seems indeed very plain that we are under an Obligation to make nothing more necessary to be Believed than what is clearly laid down in Scripture or necessarily to be drawn from it But this also is as certain that we ought not to deny any thing to be an Article of Faith which the Scripture has made such especially if it be clearly delivered For it is God's Word alone that must guide us in those Cases and it is as dangerous to detract from it as to add to it And thus I have Examined those Parts of the Reasonableness of Christianity which seem'd to me to be Erroneous as for those that treat of the Necessity of Revelation the Conditions of Repentance Good Works c. they seem to carry an Air of Piety along with them and to be writ with such strength of Judgment as may be suppos'd that the Author had thought more upon them than upon any other Parts of that Treatise FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHen these Papers were just coming Abroad there appear'd a Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. by the Author of it I was under Apprehension that some Arguments might be there propounded which ought to be consider'd But since I find they are chiefly directed against Mr. Edwards Reflections which tho' I have not Read I presume are different from these Observations by the Passages cited from them I did not think my self concern'd to examine them especially since they required more Time than the Press would allow If I have urged any Arguments that have been manag'd already by Others it is more than I knew What I have mention'd of Mr. Hobbs was with no Design to possess the Reader with Prejudices against the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity but only to shew that the same Doctrine had been maintain'd before our Author appear'd for it Tho' I don't believe he Borrow'd it from thence since he hath declared the contrary If in that or any thing else I have fall'n upon the same Notion with the Ingenious Author of the Occasional Paper Numb I. it is more than I did or could design since these Remarks were Drawn up long before that came Abroad ERRATA PAg. 4. lin 7. read in the Gospels p. 14. l. 28. r. reject them ibid. l. 33. r. Inspiration p. 20. l. 5. del it p. 35. l. 10. del the p. 44. in Not. r. commata p. 62. l. 1. r. Crimina p. 63. l. 12. for those are r. that is p. 69. l. 24. r. Apostle
proceeds from God it is in vain to say there are Contradictions in it for that is as impossible as that God should not be true But Secondly Why all this Concern for the illiterate and Men of weak Capacities as though it would be so very Prejudicial to them to be obliged to believe what they cannot comprehend For they do not seem to receive any Disadvantage by it more than others For if they are able to search the Scriptures they may know what they are obliged to believe and may as easily believe as Men of greater Reaches and stronger Reasons For the Mysteries of Religion which are incomprehensible are equally so to all Indeed had God made a difference in the necessary Parts of Faith between the Learned and Illiterate and requir'd such particular Articles to be believed to Salvation by all sorts of Men which only the Wisest could understand then the Poor of the World would have just Reason to complain But since he has placed all Men on the same Level and has requir'd no harder Terms of the one than the other we have all the Reason in the World to admire his infinite Wisdom in that he has reveal'd himself as much to the Unlearn'd Bulk of Mankind as to the Wise and Prudent For he that reads may understand may know what God has made necessary to Salvation tho' he can understand what he believes but in part Were we to draw our Belief from a long Train of Deductions and infer every Article of Faith from some one Principle though there might be a Mathematical Certainty for the Truth of such a Religion yet the Men of great strength of Judgment and Intenseness of Thought could only reach the perfect Knowledge of it and the poor labouring and illiterate Man must then most unhappily perish through his Ignorance But as now it is all parts of our Belief are equally intelligible by all and what we cannot comprehend as to the Manner of it we can believe to be true upon the Veracity of him that reveal'd it So that how mysterious soever some things may be which are proposed to our Faith they are not more difficult to the weak than those of stronger Capacities But there is yet in the Third Place more to be said in Defence of our common Faith if we consider the Extent and Limits of it For though we are obliged to believe what in its own Nature is a Mystery yet our Faith does not require us to go into the mysterious Parts of it that is We have no Obligations upon us to believe it as a Mystery As for Instance We are obliged to believe that the Three Divine Persons in the Trinity are one GOD but how they are One or how Three what is the adequate Meaning of their Personal Distinction or how consistent with their Unity Revelation has not made necessary to be believed And so as to the Creation of the World and the Hypostatick Vnion of God-Man we are to believe as Scripture has reveal'd but as to the manner of them by what distinct Act of Omnipotence God made the one or how he united the other our Faith is not to determine And in this Sence it may be granted that we are not obliged to believe farther than our Reason can carry us that must determine us how far and what we are to Believe that is It must decide what is required by Revelation to be Believed and what is to be the Extent of that Belief For we are only enjoin'd to believe Articles of Faith as they are delivered in Scripture without any particular Explanations of the Modes how they may be conceived For though the Articles themselves are necessary to be Believed to Salvation yet any particular Explication of them is not because as we can have no just Idea of them our selves so we have no certainty that any Body else can have And therefore it is a meer Scandal cast upon us that we Believe we know not what for we have a perfect Understanding of what is required to be Believed and the Grounds of our Belief are as cogent as any Evidence of Sense For it is as easy to Believe what God has certainly Reveal'd as what we can apprehend by our Senses We may without any great difficulty understand what we are to Believe but as to the Manner or particular Modes of Existence of those things which are required to be Believed as they are above our Comprehensions so are they not made any Parts of our Faith But lastly Since our Author is of Opinion that it would be so very Advantageous to Mankind in general to have only such a Religion as is very easy to be understood by all sorts of Men we ought to consider how very Intelligble his Rule of Faith is if compared with that of our Church and how Agreeable his One Article is to the Comprehension of vulgar Capacities For he that advances a new Scheme of Faith should take great care that it may not labour under any of those Imperfections for which the other is Condemned Now let us suppose with our Author that the believing Jesus to be the Messiah the Saviour that was to come into the World to be alone necessary to Salvation and let this be proposed to an inquisitive labouring Man that would desire to know a Reason for his Faith Now indeed he might acknowledge that this Proposition Jesus is the Messiah is easy to be remembred but not so easily understood It is then very probable he would enquire what is meant by his being the Messiah If we should tell him that he was the Saviour promised the Question would again recurr What is meant by his being our Saviour or how or from what did he save us If we should say that he was our Saviour by those excellent Precepts which he taught to reform Mankind this would not satisfy because we had most of those Precepts before tho' not so fully explain'd and because this is not consistent with the general Sence of Scripture which tells us that he was our Saviour by suffering for us and in our stead If we should reply that he was indeed put to Death because of our Sins and that we should by the Death of so innocent a Person learn to reform our Lives and follow his Doctrine This would be yet more unintelligible for why should God suffer an innocent Person to be put to Death because the rest of Mankind were Sinners This indeed would be the only Means to encourage Men in their Impieties since there was no safety in a Religious Life And this Reason would also prevent the success of his Doctrine for if all his Design was to prevail with Mankind to receive his Doctrine it would have been much more for his Advantage to have saved himself by a miraculous coming down from the Cross for then there is no question but all Men would have believed what he taught was from God Since this would have been a greater